The
resident crew of the International Space Station – Commander Yury
Usachev and Flight Engineers Jim Voss and Susan Helms – spent the
last week conducting experiments and performing routine housekeeping
chores and some maintenance work.

The activation
of the station’s Ku-Band antenna remains on hold until a software
update is uplinked to the station’s computers Thursday. This command
is designed to correct an apparent pointing error with the dish-shaped
antenna. The Ku-Band system is used to transmit television, voice and
high-speed data to the ground. Normal communication is being managed
through the S-Band audio system. Any required TV images, in the meantime,
can be accommodated through the use of the laptop computer-based digital
video system.

Also, the crew
changed out components of the carbon dioxide removal assembly system
in the Destiny Laboratory in an effort to recover its use. Troubleshooting
work continues as engineers evaluate what appears to be a sluggish vent
valve on the unit. The Zvezda module’s CO2 removal system is working
fine and providing more than adequate capability to cleanse the cabin
air in the meantime.

Oxygen for the
crew currently is being provided by supply tanks in the Progress supply
vehicle, which boosted the cabin air yesterday. Without the Progress,
the Russian Elektron in Zvezda provides oxygen generation. Not presently
needed, the Elektron is turned off.

Apart from maintenance
tasks and routine housekeeping chores, the crew has been working with
experiments on board. The Human Research Facility rack in Destiny is
managed and operated by a science and operations team from the Telescience
Support Center down the hall from the station’s flight control
room in Mission Control, Houston. All payloads on the station are overseen
from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama
where the Payloads Operations Center is located. For details on the
science investigations ongoing aboard the ISS, visit the following website:

The Progress supply
craft currently docked to the aft end of the Zvezda module is scheduled
to be undocked around April 15 in preparation for the arrival of the
next shuttle flight carrying the station’s Canadian-built robot
arm and a second Italian Space Agency supplied logistics module called
Raffaello. The open port allows for the relocation of the Soyuz capsule
around April 17, which will provide clearance for the placement of Raffaello
during the docked phase of the shuttle mission. The Flight Readiness
Review to evaluate the readiness of Endeavour, its crew and the station
for the shuttle’s launch on the STS-100 mission will be held Thursday
to select a target launch date, which currently is around April 19.

Earlier today,
a small test firing of the Progress supply ship’s thrusters was
performed to verify command capability of the steering jets via the
Zvezda module’s computers. The brief engine burn resulted in a
change in the velocity of the Station of only one meter per second.
It was the first time the Progress thrusters were commanded from the
ground through the Zvezda module’s computers.

The test sets the
stage for another Progress engine firing early next week designed to
refine the orbit of the station relative to the Baikonur Cosmodrome
in Kazakhstan in preparation for the arrival of a new Soyuz capsule
to replace the one presently docked to the station. Soyuz capsules routinely
are changed about every 180 days. A taxi crew, as it’s called,
will deliver the new capsule and return to Earth in the one launched
last October carrying the station’s first Expedition Crew.

Late Tuesday,
a handover of the station’s attitude control from the electrically
driven Control Moment Gyroscopes to the Zvezda module’s thrusters
was performed as a test to verify that the automatic switchover would
occur in the event that the CMGs developed a problem. The test allowed
the system to ‘think’ that the gyros had failed down to one
operational system and the computers automatically switched to the thrusters.
The test verified the system is fully operational.

The International
Space Station continues to orbit the Earth in good shape at an altitude
of 238 statute miles (384 km). The next ISS Status Report will be issued
April 11, unless developments warrant.

###

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